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Light erupted before Mizzen's eyes and he was knocked to the arena floor, rolling over several times before finally coming to a painful halt as his head slammed into the ground beneath him.
His vision blurred like a camera being refocused after catching the light and he groaned in pain as he tried to move. He had to get to Coral. He'd noticed something strange, a ticking sound, somewhere behind them and he'd just been about to warn her before the explosion went off.
The impact had landed him face down on the ground but he was able to twist his head slightly to look over at his right. Safe to say he didn't see an awful lot. A thick layer of brown, dusty smoke had shrouded the arena and with more explosions beginning to sound in various other directions, the visibility only worsened until Mizzen could barely see even a meter ahead of himself.
"Coral!" Mizzen tried to call out but was cut short as the smoke took the chance to invade his throat, swarming in his lungs, sending him into a painful, dry coughing fit.
A few seconds later, another explosion went off but this time it felt like it was right beside him and as the force of it hit him, he felt something pop in his ear and it was as if someone had turned the sound off. He wailed in pain as his ear throbbed in sudden agony, the entire right side of his head feeling heavier with the amount of pain stuck there and the high winds thwipping from the explosions only aggravated it.
He tried to get up or at the very least sit up, wedging his arm beneath himself and pushing himself up but his entire body had become weak and the world was now spinning and in a matter of seconds, his wobbly arm gave out and his face smack straight into the ground, his tooth chipping and the now sharpened enamel stabbing into his lip.
He whimpered in pain though it was muffled with his face stuck in the dirt, causing the sound to come out as more or that of a whining animal.
With great effort, he pushed himself over slightly and flopped onto his back, gulping down great big breaths of thick, sooty air. The heat of the smoke burned his throat and his lungs, sending him into even more agony, but instinct made him desperate to breathe so his lungs continued to take in the poisoned air.
Through his hazy vision, Mizzen could make out dark, lumbering shapes through the smoke above him. At first, he was entranced, watching them shift and grow bigger, but that sentiment quickly shifted to terror when he realised what it was.
Falling rubble.
Falling rubble that was directly above him.
He sobbed in fear, digging his elbows into the ground beneath him as he tried to scoot away but his body was at its limit even with the adrenaline to fuel it and so he was forced to lay there helplessly and watch as the rubble came down on him.
The impact of it punched the air out of him and he was breathless as he tried to scream in pain. His body was crushed under the rubble, pinned firmly to the ground, and he felt something break in his leg.
He tested his mobility, twisting around to try and get a bit more space but he was unable to move anything but his head, the rest of him being well and truly stuck under the rubble.
The weight of it pushed down on his chest, making breathing an even more difficult task than it already was, and as the minutes passed panic slowly began to creep in in place of oxygen.
He tried to lift some of the rubble up for even just a sliver of space but it would not budge, much much too heavy for his small and already weak body to move.
So he shouted for help, ignoring the instinct that nagged him to keep gasping for air and enduring the painfully slow process of suffocating.
"Coral!" He yelled out into the thick smoke, "Coral! Help!"
But if there was a response, he couldn't hear it. The sound was completely gone from his right ear and the high-pitched ringing that was left drowned out any from his left. It occurred to him then that he'd found himself very alone and very helpless.
A sharp burning sensation in his arm alerted him to the fire slowly creeping closer, flames licking out at him and gradually nearing his head. His shouts became less coherent and dissolved into screams of pain as the flames scalded his skin tauntingly.
"Coral!" He screamed, the only word his mind could still think of and his mouth could still form through the overwhelming pain. "Coral!"
Above him, he could see more shapes moving and this time he knew what it meant.
His screams became desperate as he saw more rubble quickly falling towards him. He knew he wouldn't be able to endure any more. His body was weak, injured and tired. It would kill him.
"Coral! Coral! CORA—"
The rubble slammed into him and the world went blank. He was aware of his body going limp and being taken into the flames. The pain was more tingly now than painful but the vague awareness that he was dying was enough to squeeze tears from his eyes.
He wasn't sure how long he lay there before hands found him. Tough, comforting, familiar hands, gripping his arms and tugging him out from the rubble with all the strength they could muster.
For a while, he couldn't place who it was but his mind still remembered them to be something safe so he let himself relax.
The hands swatted away the fire and brushed the dust out of his hair though he could tell the exact moment they realised he wasn't breathing because they became frantic, gripping the fabric of his clothes and pressing down on his chest.
Words were being spoken but he could not decipher them, though the voice was familiar enough that the frantic shouting became a calming lullaby.
He watched the blurry shapes moving in and out of his vision as hands began pressing down on his chest. It was painful, like the rubble crushing his lungs, but they were lifted after a split second and then brought down again.
His muddled mind eventually made the connection to the motion he'd seen the fishermen doing when someone drowned. Pushing down on their chest to get their heart to beat again. He wondered if his heart had stopped beating.
As he lay there waiting for the future to decide its course, he felt his ribs snap under the pressure and dig holes into his lungs. He couldn't even comprehend the pain anymore.
He knew he was going to die.
It was only when she was being pulled away from him that Mizzen finally pieced together who the hands belonged to.
Coral.
One of the last things he heard were her anguished cries as she was dragged away and then it was silent.
He was alone.
Feeling the rest of his energy drain from his body, he had one final, desperate wish for her to come back. For her to hold him and talk to him again or even just be there while he died.
But she was gone.
And he died alone.